Small town agency with 'Hogwarts' HQ strikes it rich in US ad awards

Coleman - "he seems to have Master Potter's magic touch in the advertising industry" said AdAge - believes that with the tough financial times , small agencies have a better handle on how to cope. Via, which now employs 85 people, has this year launched campaigns for international brands Samsung - its new tablet - and Unilever and a number of US national brands. Coleman, who founded the agency 18 years ago, "I have asked myself why are we gaining more and more momentum now. In some ways, the worse the economy got, the better we did. "I think we benefited from the fact that larger agencies are not handling this very well, and clients are looking outside for innovation, ideas and results. This really is the time for small agencies to prosper." Chief Operating Officer Ann Morton who joined from McGarryBowen, New York, said Via was the industry's "best-kept secret."

"I think we are realists -- we say 'new traditionalists,'" she said. "At the end of the day we understand what we're here to do, and that is to help our clients sell products and services." When Via found out a Samsung team was coming in for an unexpected visit last year, they checked their own flat screens TVs. Eight out of 10 were Samsungs. Still, at 10 p.m., they drove out to buy more and finished installing them just as the Samsung team arrived. Ralph Santana, chief marketing officer of Samsung, said, "They're a small agency doing big-agency stuff. They are really good listeners and they look to partner, not just push this creative or that creative. They tie creative to metrics." Brandon Coleman, CMO of national restaurant chain Macaroni Grill, gave Via its business without a review after just one meeting. "They're more about solving the problem and addressing the challenge than they are about creating something fun that everyone wants to watch," he said . Unilever Global VP-Ice Cream, Kids Alberto Di Leo hired Via for Klondike He said, "They shot an ad with my team . Everyone said they had never worked with people who were so much fun and so passionate and energised." That big Hogwartsbuilding set in a small town may be part of it, said Ad Age. "To live in a smaller town and to go to baseball games and do the grocery shopping and all of that, helps in understanding the broad spectrum of different kinds of people. I truly believe that what it really does is afford us the opportunity to think," said Via's Coleman.